[Cialug] distro for ibook

[Zachary Kotlarek]

On Dec 8, 2009, at 11:21 AM, L. V. Lammert wrote:

> 1) Apple is a multi-dimensional vertical market where Apple gets a
> commission at every level - appliances are purpose built for one
> application (typically a firewall device) that do not affect any other
> market.


Cisco plays the same game. Switches. Routers. Network security. Phones. Video conferencing. VPNs (hardware and software). WebEx. Building security. They make a solution for just about every communications and security related problem that business have. Most of it on proprietary hardware. Some of it on commodity hardware with an open-source OS and a couple of proprietary apps. It sounds a lot like Apple.

They even play the same pricing and marketing game. They make a couple of overpriced devices for the low-end because their customers demand it, but their bread-and-butter is high-end, high-markup equipment. Like Apple they sell end-to-end solutions by claiming that their stuff "just works" when you use it all together. It's mostly true, but they use that to create vertical integration and high margins in a premium brand, and they price their gear with that in mind.

I'm sure you could find other examples; Apple is hardly the only vertically integrated company in the world, and I'd bet that a lot of them use open-source software on some of their equipment.


> 2) The functioality of an appliance box can easily be replicated, and, in
> most cases, superceded with an OS built environment.


You can slap whatever OS you want on Apple's box. MS Windows and desktop linux distros all have about the same functionality and run without issue on Apple hardware. Apple even releases drivers for their proprietary hardware for Windows (mostly to encourage switching I know, but still hardly a lock-in).


> 3) Apple purposly 'links' to other dimensions (e.g. DRM) in order to
> further it's profit picture and degrade options for consumers; there is no
> appliance in the market of which I am aware that has the same sort of
> control.


Off the top of my head I can only name two types of DRM in Apple's OS:

1. Will only boot on Apple hardware. I doubt any appliance manufacturer would be excited if your took their software off the machine it came on and ran it on another one. That goes for everything from the no-name WiFi AP to Cisco gear; software sellers don't care what hardware you use, but most appliance manufacturers do, because they sell hardware.

2. FairPlay on video files from the iTMS (and previously on audio files). I agree, this one is annoying. But it's scope is quite limited; it only affects specific media files, not video playback in general, or any other part of system functionality.

Am I missing other DRM that makes OS X nasty? It's not like you have to buy Apple-branded apps or disks or something (which Dell claimed last time I called -- that non-Dell disks would void my warranty).


> 4) An appliance must, by the GPL, include attribution of the OS internals;
> Apple does not, because it purposfully picked a BSD licensed environment.


No, but they do anyway to a large degree -- it might be a PR stunt, but it's still a good deal of shared code. And they picked a base system with a license that was compatible with their intent; no one who released their code under a BSD license ever intended to force Apple share anything, and they likely do not feel jilted if/when Apple fails to do so.

	Zach

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 2746 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://cialug.org/pipermail/cialug/attachments/20091208/ea437cef/attachment.bin